A Timex Really Does Keep On Ticking

I’m old enough to remember those Timex television commercials from the 1960’s with spokesperson John Cameron Swayze putting the watches through the live torture tests. The Timex slogan was “Timex takes a licking and keeps on ticking.” I don’t know about the licking part, but I can vouch that it keeps on ticking.

For the past 30 plus years, I’ve been wearing Seiko watches, but I seldom throw old watches away. I had forgotten all about this Timex until my ex-wife brought it over to me one night two months ago.

She was cleaning out her garage and found this small Seiko box in a larger box which also contained items I no longer wanted or needed. Inside that Seiko box was an old Timex. I must have put the watch in there when I got my first Seiko.

It has a white dial with Arabic numbers. That gold plated expansion bracelet is a bit tarnished now but it doesn’t look that bad. I put the watch back in the box and forgot about it.

Two weekends ago, I had my own cleaning out to do. For me, it was my living room closet. Once again I came across that little Seiko box with the old Timex inside.

I was getting ready to throw it out, but before I did, I remembered that the Timex was a self-winding watch. After 30 plus years, could it be possible that the watch actually still worked?

I took it out of the box and wound it up. To my shock, the old watch started to tick. It’s been ticking ever since.

The Seiko I’ve been wearing is now in that little Seiko box and the old Timex is on my wrist keeping perfect time. I’m not going to put it through any kind of torture test as it’s amazing enough to me that after 30 plus years of not being worn or wound up, that old watch picked up right where it left off.

I used to like watches, especially ones with black faces. But I never wear one now because clocks, mostly digital, are everywhere. I’m surprised a market for watches still exists, but most wear them as a jewelry accessories, not timepieces, and many, like Movados, are extremely expensive.